Who are you and where are you from?

[adax]

wow.
didn't think i'd have so much fun reading about other people in a zaurus forum!
after hearing about all you guys i'm starting to think i'm not as much of a geek as i thought i was.
i'm probably one of the least interesting people here...
my name is adam mcauley, i'm 30 years old and i live in sheffield, UK. I've had a zaurus since january this year, thanks to ebay.
I've had my eye on them since the old 5000 developer models were out but could never justify the expense. I work as a web developer in Sheffield (Perl, PHP, mysql, linux, apache) & i've been using linux for a few years.

as i am a newbie, not only to zaurus, but to pda's in general, i'm still finding out what it is i'm trying to do that the Z can't. A nice remote control app would be nice, the opie thing (lirc) doesn't seem to work for me. and there doesn't seem to be any good map software for the UK.
used the sharp rom, didn't like it, switched to cacko 1.22 one night after a couple (ahem) of beers down the pub.

oh, and when people at work saw my 860, they all thought it was cool, esp with the funky japanese chars all over the keyboard. even the non geeks were impressed.

ps. Maslovsky is a genius.  

[mammothrept]

39 yr old American lawyer living in Tokyo.  Originally from the midwest.

SL-C3000 with WL12-CF-S11, Filco USB keyboard and Logitech mouse.  iRiver IHP-120 for external storage.  Pocket Dict softcase and Pelican 1120 hard case.

Home systems are an RH7.1 server and homebrew desktop running Ubuntu and Fujitsu laptop running Xandros.

And the mammothrept is my four year old.  (Mam"mo*thrept) n. [Gr. grandmother + to nourish.] A child brought up by its grandmother; a spoiled child. [R.]

[Jen]

Well, I'm the proud new owner of a Zaurus SL-C860 as of Wednesday.    Been reading the forums and whatnot in preparation for its arrival.  It's sooo cool!

I'm in my 30's, from New Mexico, USA.  Yes, we ARE a state.    I'm a Materials Engineer - though currently on an extended leave raising 3 boys that my partner and I recently adopted.  0-3 in nothing flat...Now, that'll keep you on your toes!  Learning Linux should be a piece of cake in comparison  

Still playing around with the Sharp ROM, but I have Cacko and pdaXROM already downloaded and I *almost* have enough nerve ready to go for it...nah, maybe just a bit more research first.  

Anyway, thanks to all that have contributed in the past and continue to do so.

Jen

[systemparadox]

Hi all,
Simon Williams, 17, living in Tavistock, Devon, England (Devonshire born and bred ). A total geek (well, nearly). Yet to find any Linux geeks my age in this area
Studying Maths, Physics, Electronics and Computing (M$ Visual Basic- YUK!) for A level.
I type dvorak.
Learning C/C++ (in addition to VB), with a mind to contribute to the Linux community.
"Command Line Junkie"
Know a reasonable amount of Japanese and Spanish and teaching myself Russian.
Networking expert (nearly).

Against the illegal, immoral, fraudulent, wasteful, communist, bureaucratic EU in every way.
Against Micro$oft in almost every way.

Still stuck with SL-5500, because my parents won't let me buy a new one

[ev1l]

Still playing around with the Sharp ROM, but I have Cacko and pdaXROM already downloaded and I *almost* have enough nerve ready to go for it...nah, maybe just a bit more research first. 

PDAXRom is another story, but Cacko is really just an improved Sharp ROM, it's really quite straight forward.

[padishah_emperor]

Against the illegal, immoral, fraudulent, wasteful, communist, bureaucratic EU in every way.
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I wonder if that's based on actual knowledge of the EU and it's goals, or just a ill-thought out reactionary position as dictated by those who act patriotic but actually haven't got a clue what it means?  

Was this thread intended for a statement of political views too? If so, I'll gladly weigh in.  

[Jen]

Still playing around with the Sharp ROM, but I have Cacko and pdaXROM already downloaded and I *almost* have enough nerve ready to go for it...nah, maybe just a bit more research first. 

PDAXRom is another story, but Cacko is really just an improved Sharp ROM, it's really quite straight forward.
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Yeah - I went ahead and flashed it with Cacko just a couple of days later.  I like it, but I'm getting some errors now with packages that ran before.  i.e. the ir keyboard and frotz...still maybe it's something stupid I am doing -  I keep learning just how much I don't know!  

I'm having a blast though - I might try OZ next.  

[Blaise]

Hi folks !
Blaise, 36 yo guy, living in Toulouse / France, gis and webmapping developer.
Started with Apple II... many years on Linux but always so much to learn. I am now working with Apache, Php, MySql and MapServer( http://mapserver.gis.umn.edu ).
Not familiar yet with mobile devices, but now I want to try to port MapServer to a Z and add a gps, connections...
Also very interested in Flash player (development ?) on Z.
I bought a SL-5500 recently, startup is not easy, but thanks to this forum, I just got my first help very fast,  so... keep on going !
blaise

[revdjenk]

Hello... Doug from Erie PA USA
52 yr old Presbyterian minister.
I've used my 5500 since Sept 01, mostly for notetaking during meetings, augmented by that wonderful Targus keyboard and to IRK (yeah Craig!) or to keep me from missing appointments. (almost switched over to KDE-PIM (yeah zautrix)  Even used the Z this week during a funeral, reading from qpsword.

I am still using windo$e in my PC's, but am easing my way into Linux, since getting wind of the open source community through Star Office 5.0 and openoffice.org (since May 2001).
 I have dual booted with ASPLinux 7.2, knoppix, kanotix, slax,  beatrix and yoper, but still not comfortable with anyone of them!

My 5500 is pretty stock, with only a 512 SD and 512 CF running Cracko's 5500 rom, "home-built" battery extender.

But it really has been this community that has made the Z worth it all!

[ScottYelich]

doug --

since you're into try...

try NLD -- Novell Linux Desktop -- it will be useable out of the box.

Novell purchased SuSE and Ximian... they've highgly customized and configured
gnome (and kde) for NLD.  Does it cost money?  If you want support (online?) --
but *I* feel it's worth it.

I love freebsd -- but I have NLD at work (since we standardized on SuSE anyway),
on my work laptop (just put in the cd, installed, it repartitioned, etc.) and as my main
desktop at home -- win xp (for games) base + vmware to run nld desktop and freebsd
(and other) nodes.

www.novell.com
products
NLD
http://www.novell.com/products/desktop/ind...menu_nld_bottom

remember, this is still just SuSE (SLES 9) + gnome... but it's already configured
and it has the full weight of novel l behind it.


Scott
ps:  jm02, IMnsHO, YMMV

[ev1l]

Against the illegal, immoral, fraudulent, wasteful, communist, bureaucratic EU in every way.
Against Micro$oft in almost every way.

Stop the politics. Governments may be illegal, immoral, fraudulent, wasteful, communist, bureaucratic in some form or another, but this isn't the place to blame them for it.

I am still using windo$e

Stop doing that, damnit.

[Ragnorok]

- Wowzers!  And here I thought I'd be going to bed!  (drool)

- 43 yr old software engineer living in Nashua, NH.  Married three years ago; no kids.  Currently writing database-driven applications using Notes/Domino on Winbloze (this is personal preference based on experience, ev1l, not "MS bashing" ... Winbloze is an inferior operating system, imho; that's just how it is), doing S2S, C++ integration, digital signatures ... essentially making Domino do all sorts of things it's not supposed to be able to.  (wink)  Work from home 24x7, I actually work for an itsy-bitsy contractor to the Dept of Energy, and everything I do runs on DoENet, the internal network, so it's not public-facing.  Well some of it is, but you need an account to see it.  (vaccuous stare)
- Like hardware as much as software; college degree is actually EE.  Built most of the systems I own, and maintain my own LAN with multii-layer security (ostensibly for work, though I get a bit of utility out of it from time to time).  Nothing is bulletproof, but I do what little I can in the even littler time I have!
- Been interested in computers as long as I can remember; first language was Fortran IV when I was 14, and one of the few I've actually received instruction for.  (grin) Forgotten more computer languages than I know.  (wall-eyed stare)  Currently taking Java courses 'cause work wants me to.  (shrug)  I taught myself Java years ago, but if they want formal training, I don't mind.  I do the homework on Hiro.  (wolfish grin)
- Have six computers (not including pdas), but only use three with any real frequency.  Waiting for the wife to finish configuring her new system so I'll have a dedicated Z cross-dev system instead of dual-booting like I do now.  (pout)  Then I'll have seven.  (snicker)  And I'll be able to debug blueZ a lot easier ... it's sweet when it works, but when it doesn't it's very frustrating.  It's about time to poke at it.
- First paid programming was on a 370, followed by a stint with a distributed multi-version Unix project in '95.  Dabbled in *nix before that, but really got my feet soaking wet then, and just loved it.  Haven't liked any other OS nearly as much since.
- First personal Linux was in '96 as the firewall for my first LAN.  Been my firewall ever since, though I've upgraded the hardware twice and the Linux version four times.  Linux runs on four of the six boxen, five if you count the dual-boot.  Looking to migrate my entire work environment to Linux, just to ditch Winbloze, because it blows!  I really, really want to be rid of that worthless tripe before XP's lifecycle ends and I'm forced to "upgrade" to the next in-kludge-ation.  Then all six will be Linux.  Yes!
- Never have owned a Palm ... can't stand things that won't multitask ... though the wife swears by her Treo 650.  First PDA was a Cassio, then went to Sharp (YO series), then Sharp Zaurus (very early, no linux), then Psion 5/5mx, then an SL-5500, and now a C1000.  I was very depressed when Psion left the PDA market, and thought I'd have to ultimately get a Palm, or worse, a Winbloze CE.  (violent shivver)  But Sharp came to the rescue, and the awesome wife got me Cricket for my birthday three years ago.  Linux in my pocket?  Wowzers!!
- First pocket computer was an HP-41C I got as a senior in high school, back when a pair of them were the backup orbital mechanics/landing insertion computers on the space shuttle.  Had the card reader and two expanded memory modules for it.  That was replaced with an HP-71B I got in college (1984), which I still own, along with a 32KB (!) memory module, the FORTH module, the card reader, and an HP-IL interface.  I also still have both the Psions and a TRS-80 PocketPC.  Cricket (the SL-5500) got sold off to get the new GB SD for Hiroshi (the C1000).  I can't imagine a better pocket system than a Zaurus, except a Zaurus clamshell.

[bam]

Name: Bam
Location: Gobi Desert, Mongolia
Interests: Decompile Palm Applications(ASM), PIC programming, Linux(recently), plc's electronics, hek anything technical

The rest, is just that, the rest.

[chiark]

I'm amazed at the diversity on here - like others have said, it's fantastic to read who and where people are, and what they're using their Zs for.

I'm Nick, from Leeds in England.  Married with one son, who turns two next week (blimey, where did that time go?)  I work as a technical architect for a large-ish systems integrator.  Z-wise, I've got an SL-5500 running Cacko 64/0 with a 512MB SD card, and I'm just amazed that X works on it: the idea of me buying the 5500 was as a cheap introduction to see if I can live with Linux as the embedded OS, and the answer is an emphatic "yes".  I want more now

I've had most Psion devices from the Organiser II through to the 5MX, taking in the 3a, 3c, Siena, 3mx and series 5 on the way, and keeping all but the series 5 (the 5MX will do for my history of PDAs "display"  )  and then decided to look at the WinCE clamshells in the form of the HP 320lx, 620lx, Jornada 680 and 720.  I also tried an ipaq 3630, but it wasn't for me: the OS is hobbled, whereas WinCE straight up is quite nice.  I develop as a hobby for the 720, and I do like Embedded Visual C++: it just works, and works well  .  

To me, these things are much more than just PDAs: to keep me interested, they have to be full on computing devices.  The fact that they help keep me organised is a given; they've got to interest me to keep me using them

I've written a couple of reviews of WinCE stuff for hpcfactor.com, a site devoted to clamshell WinCE devices.  "Back in the day", I used to write for CU Amiga and Amiga Computing whilst I was a student at Leeds University, studying computer science.  I also used to tinker at developing for the amiga, and wrote the amiga driver for the cheap Tabby graphics tablet which did well in the UK.

Anything gadgety, geeky or technical normally piques my interest: I recently was playing with Atmel AVR chips to try and get data out of my car for real-time display of engine data...  Got so far with that, then sold the car which sort of put a dampener on the project

Enough waffle, I'll stand aside for the next person!

[chal]

My pet project is to make KDE PIM applications ( I am working on korganizer, some other guy on KAdressbook) running on zaurus.
www.pi-sync.net

Along with many others, I'm really happy you are doing this. KO-Pi is just great!
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I second that! KOPI especially. My wife has RSD (Reflex Sympathetic Distrophy) and has to take a lot of medication and I have psoriasis and psoriatic arthritis, which requires a few daily and weekly meds myself, not to mention that both of us have a lot of appointments with the MD. KOPI helps me keep track of it all. I don't know how I did without it now.

I am originally from Louisiana, right outside of New Orleans (yes Katrina hit that area real hard and I lived in a mobile home there), but have been living in the Netherlands (Leeuwarden) for a year now (just got my 5 year papers to stay here today) with my wife who I met online.  

We have 2 sl5500s which I brought over from America. I use it for a PDA (of all things), but also for Bible Study, MP3 player, games (I even have Zork). I'm an former graphic artist (photoengraver, offset printer and screen printer / artist), but my arthritis forced me into premature retirement. I started using Mandrake linux back when 7.0 was out ( can't remember when that was). Now I only use Linux (Mandrake Move) occasionally on my desktop and my Zauri are my  main Linux boxes.

As I am trying to learn to speak Dutch, I'm looking for any Dutch-English tools that will run on Zaurus. I have bdicty and even bought one (Dutch-English thingy)from them, that I thought would work (because it was the same extention as my English Pro dictionary), but it was for some other platform. I also have zbedic (running Wikipedia), Opie Reader, and Konqueror (in case I find one in HTML) so I'm keeping my eyes peeled and widely peripherized.